Kildare man who kicked stranger in head, is remanded on bail
A Kildare man and his friend who beat up a stranger and kicked him in the head leaving him unconscious after "slagging" off his name have been remanded on bail pending sentence later.
Gavin Mahady (aged 22), of Glendara, Kill started jeering Mr Fergal O’Driscoll in Abrakebabra on Westmoreland Street in Dublin city centre after he learned the victim’s name.
A scuffle broke out between the pair but they were separated and Mr O’Driscoll apologised to the staff before he and his friend left the restaurant.
Minutes later, Mr O’Driscoll heard someone shouting "Fergie, Fergie, Fergie" and looked up to see Mahady and Keith Farrell (aged 23), of Cherrywood Cresent, Clondalkin following him.
Mahady then charged at him and they fell to the ground where a fight broke out.
Garda Matthew MacKenzie-Smith told Mr Colm O’Briain BL, prosecuting, that when Mr O’Driscoll’s friend tried to intervene, Farrell told him not to or he would "knife" him.
Farrell then got involved in the fight and witnesses saw him kicking the victim in the head. Other witnesses said they saw Mahady punching Mr O’Driscoll and headbutting him.
Mahady and Farrell pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm on November 9, 2006. Both had €5,000 in court as a token of their remorse.
Mahady, who is a prominent footballer at his local GAA club in Kill, has no previous convictions, while Farrell had nine convictions, which included road traffic and drug offences.
Gda MacKenzie-Smith told Judge Katherine Delahunt that although Farrell threatened Mr O’Driscoll with a knife he did not have one.
A victim impact report indicated that he no longer felt safe in the city at night and he described the attack "as the most traumatic and harrowing he ever had to endure".
Gda MacKenzie-Smith agreed with both Mr John Byrne BL, defending Farrell and Mr Shane Costelloe BL, defending Mahady that witnesses saw Mahady and the victim run towards each other and that Mr O’Driscoll had been gesticulating at his attacker.
Mr Costelloe said Mahady did not want the court to view what happened beforehand as "a justification for what he had done" and that he feels "great shame and remorse" for what happened.
A letter from Kill GAA Club said that in Mahady’s history with the club he had never been sent off in a match or even reprimanded by a referee.
Mr Byrne told Judge Delahunt that Farrell wanted to offer a very sincere apology to Mr O’Driscoll and asked her to accept that his behaviour was "out of character".
